Judd jaunt to fire up capital

Summer is arriving in the capital with a scorcher. No, global warming has nothing to do with it. Hollywood actress Ashley Judd is coming to town to turn on the heat.

The star of the 1990s thrillers Kiss The Girls and Double Jeopardy will arrive this month as global ambassador for Youth AIDS, an initiative of Population Services International (PSI), an organisation involved in the prevention of HIV, health education, and maternal and child health.

Judd , who has been involved in humanitarian and reproductive rights issues in recent years, will meet health workers, representatives of corporate organisations, government officials and others during her three-day stay.

“Through her efforts at mobilisation of resources from the corporate sector, we’ve been able to raise about $500,000 that will go into our projects in Mumbai,” said Tim McLellan, managing director of PSI India.

Say it with grapes

Media baron Ramoji Rao sure knows how to turn sour relations sweet.

After fighting bitterly with Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy on public platforms, the Eenadu Group boss sent the chief minister’s office a gift — a huge basket of grapes.

Rao had run a series of exposes on YSR’s Congress government and the chief minister paid back in kind with raids on the office of Rao’s Margadarshi Financiers.

The “grape diplomacy” — the basket reached the chief minister’s office on February 26 — left everyone stumped.

As they ate the grapes with relish, YSR and his employees chewed on what Rao had in mind.

But they needn’t worry too much. Rao has always been generous, even to his rivals. And the fruits of his social skills: the Rs 1,500-crore empire he lords over.

All for a laugh

“Of course I am looking forward to the dirt and disease of Calcutta.”

For a comment like that, Russel Peters could well be beaten up, but, rather, he draws the cheers.

A stand-up comedian, Peters is an Anglo-Indian with roots in Calcutta.

And he is a one-man show.

His performance in Bangalore — his Indian debut — was a riot.

And he certainly had a mouthful of one-liners.

“It gets progressively darker down south. And yet they want fair brides,” was his opening line.

Canada-based Peters has been making people laugh for 17 years in Toronto and he’s now looking forward to visiting Calcutta, the city of his parents and grandparents.

Taj ‘nailed’

Here’s the Taj at your fingertips. M. Umesh, a third-year bio-technology student at a Bangalore college, has carved the monument to love on his fingernail to get into the Limca Book of Records.

Umesh let his nails grow to a length of 14.5 mm before he got to work. While the original Taj Mahal took 16 years to build, Umesh’s miniature mausoleum was shaped in three hours with the help of a blade and a safety pin.

These two implements are this college lad’s best friends as he has been using them to carve miniatures for over three years now, but only on chalk pieces and soap.

His proud collection includes the Ashoka Pillar, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia and Nandita Das will share the stage at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi on March 7. Das will speak on acting and activism, followed by a performance by the flute maestro. Time: 6 pm. Contact Malabika Majumdar at 32594087 or Prakash Srivastava at 9891478172.